The Evangelical Conversion Narrative : Spiritual Autobiography in Early Modern England

Abstract

This book is about conversion narrative, a popular genre of spiritual autobiography that proliferated during the last two-thirds of the eighteenth century within the context of the Evangelical Revival in England. The subject is set in a large chronological frame, beginning with the rise of the genre in the mid-seventeenth century and ending with the ‘fall’ of the genre among some of the non-Western converts of early nineteenth-century missionaries. This large frame allows the genre to be seen whole, and draws attention to the particular conditions under which early modern people turned to spiritual autobiography. Tracing the development of the genre across the period of the Evangelical Revival through different communities and representative writings, the book provides a comprehensive typology of conversion and evangelical self-identity as it differed among the Arminian and perfectionist followers of Wesley, the Moravians under the influence of ‘stillness’, the moderate Calvinists in the Church of England, the Particular Baptists who continued to embrace high Calvinism, and others. A chapter is also included on conversion narrative among evangelical Presbyterians involved in the Cambuslang Revival in Scotland. On the basis of extensive, untapped archival sources, The Evangelical Conversion Narrative explores the different forms of expression among the educated and uneducated, pastors and laypeople, women and men, and Western and non-Western peoples. By being on the trailing edge of Christendom and the leading edge of modernity, eighteenth-century England provided the right conditions for evangelical conversion narrative to flourish, and the concluding chapter examines afresh the significance of the appearance of the genre in this context. This book is concerned with the history of autobiography, the study of eighteenth-century religion and culture, and our understanding of the Evangelical Revival.